” Made in Italy – known throughout the world”, the talent and quality which has always distinguished Italian art and design will be on show in the vibrant Naked Eye Gallery.

Dadaprojects curates and introduces the work of five exceptionally talented Italian artists to the UK.

Covering a wide range of creative disciplines, the artists are connected through their commitment, vision and expertise.

Their works are extraordinary in demonstrating, not merely a concentrated application of their expert skills, but also in revealing each individual quest for true perfection.

Massimo Ballardin

Perfect: (adj. from the past participle Perfectus from the Latin “per cere”: “to do completely, to perform”, composed of per and facere “to do”).

Meaning either something is accomplished in its entirety, in all its aspects, or, abstractly, it responds to an ideal model and to certain fixed rules. Perfect and imperfect is the title of the Anima Mundi exhibition. The project explores the border between perfection and imperfection, between completed and partially incomplete and therefore defective. Sometimes we tend to perfection, we seek perfection.

As you know though, no one is perfect… Occasionally imperfection arrives as something o -key, something not sought, something dictated by the chance. Perfection reassures, protects, or perhaps blocks us up. Imperfection destabilizes, disorientates, or perhaps releases and frees. Perfection can’t exist without imperfection, as much as imperfection can’t reveal itself without perfection. The border starts to sway…

Fabio Guerra

My attention is constantly captured by the experience of restoring ancient ceramic artifacts, returned to their original completeness from the starting point of a shattered shard.

“This work originates with the perception of a world that can no longer be represented in its entirety, but only by glimpses and fragments which, thanks to their alienation, can be deeply faithful to their origin.

The most authentic sense of these objects lies in the character (along with the concept of finite-infinite) that highlights the relationship with the original idea and finds artistic meaning in the richness of external references to which they are constantly alluded to.”

Marco Praloran

Piero Martinello

Piero Martinelli is a well established, portrait photographer, working and living between Milan and Venice, focusing on editorial and commercial assignments, with an impressive list of well renowned clients.

He has also worked on various social awareness projects. Among other venues, his work has been exhibited at Les Rencontres d’Arles and the Moscow Museum of Modern Art.

Faces of Money -A glimpse into the relationship between history, economy and national identity.

We take for granted the appearance of our paper money, not seeing the subtleties and intricacies of the images, and that everyday we may be passing artworks from hand to hand.

Paolo Polloniato

He was born in Nove, a small town between Venice and Vicenza. The town is situated on deposits of fine earthenware clay used in the production of the maiolica pottery and ceramics for which it has been famous since the Renaissance. Members of his family have been renowned as master artisans for over nine generations, directly linked to the art of painting and creation of Italy’s finest artistic ceramics.

Critics have been unanimous that he has indeed added a new and perhaps crowning dimension to the family business. This is work that is distinctively of his own. It utlilises classic moulds that have been in his family for hundreds of years and made available only to him. He incessantly explores new areas for expanding the possibilities of ceramic art with creative research into materials and communication. He has achieved this while at the same time employing the opportunities presented by these ancient molds and the designs they yield. He creates hybrid forms that are at once trapped by time with classic imagery yet simultaneously employing a vast range of cultural contexts that are both comfortably familiar yet seemingly completely out of synchronicity. Polloniato’s story telling embraces diverse approaches to comment upon modern life with classical and contemporary allusions.

Nicola Tessari

The raw material is pivotal to my work: solid wood is converted into furniture, utilitarian or artistic objects, through a turning or carving process.

I deal with the base quality of wood: knots, cracks, ramifications, grains, traces of fungi and mold.

I am interested in the singularity of each piece of wood that comes my way because I not only identify, but also impute value to details of every piece.

I interact with this raw material and therefore, can’t pre-plan my results. I am guided by the unexpected, the real.

I am not interested in adhering to an overall design. For me, shape is an adjunct to function, except for artistic works, where truth to material dictates the form itself.